Phantoms Of A Lost Tomorrow
by GothicFAED
Summary: The Continuation of Cowboy Bebop after Spike's death...told by Faye Valentine...Is this view point used often...? Gee...I hope it's not...>
1. Knocking On Heaven's Door

Phantoms Of A Lost Tomorrow  
  
My name is Faye Chaplain. Faye Valentine-Chaplain. Once, long ago, I was the notorious cowboy   
  
working side-by-side with the infamous Spike Spiegel. Short blue-black hair, my eyes vacuous pools ofgreen,  
  
clad in yellow skintight clothing; I was a deadly beauty. I was a gambling criminal who thought no more of   
  
killing a dozen people than I did putting on lipstick, maybe even less. I had flawless skin and a perfect   
  
figure, physically I was a little over twenty. Chronologically, I was over sixty.  
I was the cryogenically frozen daughter of a wealthy man. I had grown up in private schools on   
  
Earth. I was nice and polite. I lived in giant mansions, and grew up in the time when man was conquering   
  
the planets and colonizing them. It was a wonderful time to be alive, and I didn't remember any of it.  
At about 18 I took a trip on a space shuttle. It was so exhilarating, like riding first class in a   
  
jumbo jet, and yet so much more exciting. All I remember is seeing a movie, and seeing the screen split in  
  
two right down the middle. I saw things, blood, people, soft drinks, all defying gravity. It was muted, I   
  
heard nothing. My consciousness faded, and when I awoke I was on a hospital bed in a seemingly far-off   
  
Sci-Fi future that had arrived all too fast.  
The doctors told me that I had technically died on that shuttle fifty years ago. I had been   
  
teetering on the edge of life and death, and so, I was put in cryogenic suspension. I couldn't remember   
  
who I was, where I had come from, anything like that. I couldn't remember things about myself. I had   
  
amnesia, no clue about this future-world I had arrived upon, and now, I had more then fifty years of   
  
medical bills to deal with. I did the only thing I could. I ran away and hid from my debts, and eventually   
  
found myself on the bounty hunter ship named "Bebop"  
Bebop was a whole lot of something out of nothing. All criminals feared the crew. They feared Spike  
  
Speigel, the lanky, thirty-year old chain-smoker who was "The Greatest Bounty Hunter Ever". It was true   
  
that his moves could make any Karate Master cower in fear, but truth be told, all of his bounties were   
  
brought in due to his clumsiness, luck, or near-impossible coincidences. He always spent more money fixing   
  
the damage done in a chase than he received for catching the crook.   
  
They feared Jet Black the forty-year old retired police chief with a prosthetic arm. A man who was  
  
a good cook, mechanic, and pilot. An old man with a bald head, old battle scars, inside info, who was   
  
addicted to the keeping of Bonsai trees.   
They feared Edward Wong Hau Peppelu Trivousky IV, as she had christened herself. The little   
  
orphan-hacker from Earth. The child of no more than twelve who spoke gibberish in over ten languages and   
  
acted like a toddler. The girl with a pure mind, horrible fashion sense, and a mind typical of an offspring  
  
of Einstein. Ed was a kid with a sunny disposition and a tendency to speak in the third-person. She was   
  
typically called a "little boy" because her gender was very uncertain.  
They were afraid of Ein. Ein the genetically-enhanced Welsh Corgi. The dog who followed Ed around   
  
everywhere. The dog who had more sense in his head than any other living entity normally aboard Bebop.  
  
They were even afraid of a thirty pound dog.  
********************  
We were all aboard Bebop, for money we said. And although we did need money and more often than not  
  
our stomachs were gnawing upon themselves in hunger, it wasn't for money. Not even for me, the most   
  
seemingly-shallow one among the group.   
Bebop was a ship of dreams, and we were all searching for ours. I was searching for my past, where   
  
I belonged. Spike was searching for his old girlfriend, Julia, and a place he could get away from the world.  
  
Jet was searching for that fame he had had when he was young, the fulfillment of justice, and perhaps that   
  
bit of profit that he never did see. Ed was searching for something we could never quite understand.   
  
Ein was always searching for a full stomach and human companionship. He was undoubtedly the smartest one   
  
among us, because that's all you really need in life. If we had know that, things might've been different.  
I looked for my old life, convinced that when I found it, I'd find all I'd ever wanted, and after   
  
so many years of searching, I found it on Bebop, just like I knew I would. I was just looking for the place  
  
I belonged, but I would lose it to a sham. The very sham that I called my first life. The sham I gambled   
  
for, the thing I convinced myself, that was the solution to all my problems. I finally remembered where   
  
home was, and who I was, but this very remembering was to trigger the very beginning of the end.  
Upon this recollection, I took all that was mine; two sets of clothes, some cheap jewelry and some   
  
pocket change and got ready to leave in my ship. No one cared where I went anyway, or so I thought. Maybe I  
  
was right in that assumption, maybe I wasn't. It doesn't matter now. Before taking off, Ed wanted to know   
  
where I was going. I told her I was going home and that was the most important thing in the world. If you   
  
had a home, it was worth going home to. The illogical little girl stared up at me as I flew away, and   
  
decided to follow my advice. That very night, she and Ein packed up and headed out to find her father, the  
  
traveling geologist. That left just Jet and Spike.  
Meanwhile I had come to my "home". I grew excited as I saw the gate loom ahead of me. It was   
  
exactly as I remembered it. As I pushed open the gate my heart shattered when it saw what had been left. It  
  
was an overrun garden, a fountain and crumbling foundation.   
My home was not a home. It was just the dead ruins of a great life, worth no more to me than the   
  
remains of the Greek empire. Convinced I was going crazy, or I had a dream or a false memory, or that I   
  
had gotten the wrong directions I picked up a stick. I proceeded to trace the walls of the house, as I had   
  
remembered them. I drew the beds, tables, bureaus, appliance and rugs. When I was finished I looked at the  
  
outline I had made. It was the house as I had remembered it, and it matched the foundation perfectly.   
  
Everything fit. The sun was setting and I lay down inside the outline of where my bed had been. I made up   
  
my mind to go back to the Bebop the next day, just like I always did when my schemes failed. When I   
  
returned, Spike was gone.  
  
  
  
In the beginning, it had been just Jet and Spike. Now the two couldn't really fill the void that   
  
was created when Ed, Ein and I had left. Spike was, what I called "The Isolated Social Butterfly", he had   
  
to have people around so he could isolate himself from them. He was a very odd people-person. It was then,   
  
in his vulnerable time, Julia came. Spike went off with her, which was only natural, since he was willing   
  
to die for her. He had practically quit his life so they could be together, only to lose her to his best   
  
friend, Vicious.  
  
  
Not long after my arrival, Spike was back. Without Julia. We knew she was dead, we didn't bother   
  
asking. It was better that way. He sat down with Jet, and ate a meal of "Bell Peppers and Beef",   
  
(without the beef), then told a story;  
  
"Once there was a tiger-striped cat," Spike began.  
  
"He lived a thousand lives, died a thousand times and was owned by a thousand owners. The next time he   
  
died and was reincarnated he was a stray cat. He was free." He paused.  
"Now the tiger-striped cat met a beautiful white female cat, they were happy and spent all their days   
  
together. Time passed, and the white cat grew old and eventually died. The tiger striped cat cried a   
  
million tears, and then he died too, but this time, he didn't come back."  
  
"That was a nice story." Jet remarked softly.  
"I hate that story," Spike said suddenly, surprising Jet, "I hate cats, you know that!"   
And the two laughed hysterically. Spike packed up his things and got up.   
Jet stopped laughing, "Is it for the girl?" he asked.  
Neither I nor Jet heard his reply.   
  
I begged Spike not to go, because he was really all I the family I had left. I told him he was just   
  
going to die.   
"I'm not going there to die, I'm going to find out if I was ever really alive."   
I shot at him half-heartedly, missing each shot. My tears fell like rain on the floor. Jet and I watched   
  
him go for the last time, we could do nothing more.   
That lack of action would drive me insane. Literally. 


	2. Call Me, Call Me

Not long after Spike found Julia again, she died. It was devastating. She had been shot by the gang  
  
Spike had once worked for. The shot was ordered by the appropriately-named Vicious. Spike just finally   
  
went insane and went on a rampage. After seeing so many deaths, he couldn't stand idle, no more. He arrived  
  
at the syndicate hideout, and killed dozens of members, taking many bullets and injuries in the process.   
I had met Vicious once, and I had ended up chained to a wall, about to be killed, in a stunning   
  
evening gown. You couldn't help but hate him, he was evil. He wasn't the type who was born evil, who never   
  
had a choice. No. Vicious was the kind who strived for it. He worked to make himself as evil as he could,   
  
he tried to destroy his goodness and humanity, and that, is the purest form of evil. He was a tall thin   
  
man, who could match Spike's masterful moves with his own. He had long white hair and a peculiar voice that  
  
caught in his throat, as if every time he tried to speak, the sound tore it apart, it was that vile.  
This white haired devil had tried to drag Spike down. Tried to make himself a twin in evil. You had  
  
to feel sorry for Spike, he lost all that was really important to him, because he was tricked by a demon.   
  
Spike lost it all. He thought he was alone and abandoned in the world. Perhaps he really was. You could   
  
never tell with Spike. Julia's murder by in the hands of Vicious was the last straw. Her death began the   
  
chain of killings that would drive Spike mad, or perhaps they brought him common sense. You just could   
  
never tell with Spike...  
  
I was alone now, too, because he had been so selfish. At least he had injuries he could see and a   
  
foe he could see. My injuries were on the inside, in my soul, and that's where my foe was. We both had the   
  
same foe. Ourselves. Spike only went after Vicious because he was Spike's mirror image. He was fooled by  
  
the mirror.  
He finally reached Vicious, and was intent on revenge for all the pain Vicious had caused. All the   
  
suffering, all the grief, all the injuries, all the damages, all the money he had stolen, the deaths he had  
  
caused. Vicious was going to pay for the lives he stole. The Clan was going to pay too. Vicious would pay   
  
for Julia. He would pay for the happiness he had taken from Spike. They were to duel.   
No one knows what happened after, since the camera's and recording devices had malfunctioned. He   
  
stared at Vicious's dead body and recalled the last words of the dead Julia in his right eye, the eye that   
  
was forever viewing the past;   
"It's all a dream..."she said as she fell to the ground.   
"Yeah," Spike agreed, "It's all just a dream."   
All anyone knows is that they both died on those steps, more than ten feet apart. Except for me...  
  
Witnesses said that Spike had killed Vicious in the duel, but the details are all too inconsistent   
  
from the more than forty eye-witnesses to truly believe. They all said the victor descended the stairs   
  
mumbling. He made a gesture reminiscent of a gun and uttered one word, "Bang", then fell and died, most   
  
likely from the injuries sustained before the fight with Vicious.   
  
  
  
That doesn't matter now. Anyone who viewed the event is dead. Spike made sure of that with a small   
  
chemical bomb he set off shortly after entering the building. It doesn't matter, they were clan members, he  
  
had intended to wipe out that clan, and nothing in Heaven or Earth was capable of stopping Spike once he   
  
decided to do something. Not even the devil.  
I know it to be true. Not because of Eye-witness reports, or the files from the I.S.S.P., which I   
  
did eventually see, I know it because, mentally I was there. My growing insanity took charge and ripped my   
  
mind from my body. I was with Spike, in his mind, and yet, outside, I was inside each and every person   
  
there, yet all around them, as well. I knew it all, from every facet. I saw Spike die, felt him die.  
  
In the end, I was the angel who guided Spike through his death. I was his angel of death. I was   
  
there with him in his mind. And I knew he felt my presence...  
  
  
I wept,like, well, like I was crazy. I was raving throughout the night, and well on into morning... 


	3. Luck Be A Lady

Such a precious time spent in such a short while.   
A year after my last visit on Bebop, I changed my name from "Faye Valentine" to "Eliza Grencia".   
It hadn't been my real name anyway, so I could hardly feel bad. I married a billionaire, and I could've paid off the   
huge debts I still carried, but I didn't. They, like the Bonsai tree and the Woolong coin I still had, were souvenirs   
from my time aboard the Bebop. They were a part of me, now. It was too late to change that.  
At age fifty, Eliza Grencia-Chaplain, or so my alias went, lost her husband. He had been so much like Jet   
Black, even when he died, though he lacked the memories, and the senility Jet had . From the dear I inherited   
his entire fortune, including his three mansion-sized homes and a girl's finishing school on Calisto, (Jupiter's moon).   
I invested a small fortune in finding information on Ed, Ein, Julia, or anyone else I had seen in the living room that   
day. We searched for more than eight years, with, not surprisingly, no results. I knew in my heart they were   
all dead.  
As I neared my 65th year I underwent a rejuvenation treatment that made me look like I was still   
in my early thirties. I was asked if I would like to be cryogenically frozen and rejuvenated to my twenty   
year-old form. I had enough money, and I was healthy enough. What did I have to lose, the doctors said.  
" No, " I replied, "I played that trick before, and it landed me in jail."   
Awhile later, I went to Jupiter. To Calisto. To the Grey Crow, where I had first met Gren, an old jazz bar.   
It was still there, with a new name, probably one of the dozens of new names it had had. It was "The Jolly Titan"   
now, but inside it was the same as it had always been. I sat in the same seat. They hadn't even reupholstered the   
stools. I ordered a drink, any type was fine. It had been over a century since I had been "thawed", and   
biologically, I was even older than that, but I looked a very rich and young forty.  
I sneezed. It was so cold, here on Calisto. I heard Gren's words come back with his music.   
"Take care. When someone sneezes and no one says 'take care', that person will turn into a fairy.  
At least, that's what they say around here." But it wasn't Gren saying it. It was the bartender.  
"Oh. You're too late. You see, I'm already a fairy." I said in reply, just as I did so long ago.  
The bartender threw his coat over me.  
The waitress came over and said softly "Faye-Faye." She was dressed in a pale blue uniform, and a little   
Welsh Corgi sat at her feet.   
"No Ed, anything but blue." I said in a hoarse whisper.  
I tipped her with the Woolong coin, the token from Bebop. My token from the spirits.  
She hadn't even served me.  
I was seeing them all now. I was seeing them, just like Jet had. I was leaving and I wasn't going to fight.   
I was sick of cheating. Sick of cheating Death. I took the man's coat off those shoulders of mine that had bore   
such a weight, and placed the coat upon the stool. Those shoulders had carried more of a burden than any one   
human should have to carry. Then again, I wasn't human. Hadn't I just said I was a fairy?  
In the ship I changed out of my green cardigan and black leather skirt into that old yellow spandex outfit I   
had never gotten rid of. I guess I thought it may come in handy, and it did. I hacked my long locks off to reveal   
half a foot of blue-black shining hair. I pulled a headband over it, gathered my debts, and sat for a moment in   
my ancient ship, "Redtail".  
I started the engine, and rested a hand on the Bonsai tree that was surely as old as I was.   
Maybe in the end it was the frigid climate of Calisto that did it. Or perhaps it was all this traveling I had   
been doing lately. It might have been all the surgery, or the trauma. Maybe my body was just too old. Maybe those   
memories had finally caught up with me, the phantoms of the past finally got me. Or maybe I was just sick of   
living. The authorities would definitely have fun understanding my "sudden death". Nothing about it was sudden.   
I had been dying since Spike did.   
I should have been dead far before that.  
******************  
My name was Faye Valentine, and I was going home. Home to Bebop, and the best days of my life.  
As I rode, I looked at the Bonsai tree. I thought of Bebop. I heard the dying old man, Jet's words slur out of my   
mouth, probably because I had nothing else to hear, nothing else to say.   
"So that's the secret of the universe! It's so simple."  
I looked to the Bebop in the distance. The lights were on. I made up my mind to go back to the Bebop the   
next day, just like I always did when my schemes failed. Bebop, that ship of the damned dreams that stymied all   
of it's crew for the rest of their lives. Perhaps it didn't stymie it's crew, perhaps it gave them a place to rise up   
from, it gave them a fresh start. It was like the nest of a phoenix. I smiled as I imagined the scoldings I would get   
when I finally arrived.   
I could almost hear Spike say:   
"You mean you spent ALL your money at the RACETRACK?!?! We've been waiting for you to come back!!!  
What took so long? We have supper waiting, and I am HUNGRY!!!"  
  
"It wasn't the racetrack, it was the casino. I couldn't leave until I played ALL my cards." I argued. 


End file.
